Greater Manchester from Monday, April 28th, 2025

The high street in Shaw, Oldham, is surprisingly busy for a Tuesday lunch time. Workers dodge into discount bakeries for a spot of lunch, mums with prams linger at charity shop windows, pensioners make sharp beelines for the town’s homely cafés.

Hundreds of surveillance cameras are still in operation across Greater Manchester – despite the government deeming them a security threat for Whitehall.